Episode 20: Reunion
Someone stood behind me, and Lukkas was looking at them with a bitter expression.
The two who had been looking at the Guild Card also raised their faces, clearly displeased.
“Looks like business is booming.”
“What do you want?”
“Don’t be so cold. We grew up on the same Quor Street, didn’t we?”
“What is it, Uruzaku?”
“Brosun-san, it’s these guys.”
“Oh, the ones humoring that rich brat’s whims?”
“These guys,” huh? They’ve gotten barbed tongues in just a short time.
Judging from the presence, there are six people besides Uruzaku, I guess.
One of them reached for the appraisal form placed in front of Houl and examined it closely.
“Hoh, 550,000 Dala, you’re making a killing, aren’t you?”
“Who gave you permission to touch someone else’s appraisal form? Put it back!”
“Onya~aa. A bunch of newbies sticking together, and the big boss is acting tough.”
“Uruzaku got dumped by guys like this? Pathetic~”
“Didn’t you hear me? If you’re going to touch someone else’s appraisal form, you’re prepared for the consequences, right?”
“Oh, are we going to have a mock battle or something!”
“Interesting~. Let’s punish this hotshot who thinks he’s invincible.”
“Bro! Teach him a lesson!”
“You’re saying whatever you want, but have you forgotten the Guild’s rules? Taking someone else’s appraisal form makes you a thief… in other words, a bandit.”
The moment I said that, I shot an Ice Bullet into the face of the man who was laughing while holding the appraisal form, and then I charged into the man behind him, chair and all.
After punching down the dumbfounded Uruzaku, I kicked the crotch of the man next to him.
“You bastard!”
I warned the man who grabbed his sword, “If you draw your sword, I’ll kill you!” and shot an Ice Bullet into his face.
The movements of the remaining two stopped, but I ducked under the punch of the man who had been sent flying by the body check, and then blew him away with a shoulder attack this time.
“What’s all the commotion!”
“Don’t move!”
“Nobody move!”
Oh dear, the Guild staff and the Guild Master have arrived.
“What’s all the commotion?” The Guild Master, seeing me standing alone and Harrison and the others, assumed I was the center of the disturbance and questioned Harrison.
“Uh… well, the appraisal form…”
“Guild Master, that guy with the scattered teeth took our appraisal form and wouldn’t return it, and when we warned him, he and his buddies started making a fuss about a mock battle. He tried to take the appraisal form in the confusion, so I recognized him as a thief and beat him down.”
After confirming with the people who were eating and drinking around us, Uruzaku and his six companions were led out of the cafeteria by the Guild staff.
“Hugo, wasn’t it? Do it more quietly! Look! It’s covered in ice!”
“Eeeh, if I did it with my bare hands, I’d either lose or end up killing them.”
“Losing I understand, but what do you mean by killing?”
“I’m half Black Dragon, so if I punch seriously, it won’t just be a broken bone.”
“Aren’t you just a kitten?”
What a rude Guild Master. I might just kick his butt seriously.
Well, even if I am a Black Dragon, it’s physically impossible for me to punch someone to death, but a little bluffing is fine to keep the guys watching around me in check.
There was a commotion, but after breakfast, we each received our money and went to a store frequented by adventurers.
While everyone was choosing clothes, I bought four extra-large herb pouches.
My wallet was quite light after buying new weapons for them, so I took everyone to the Commerce Guild.
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This time, I brought a whole entourage with me, but they let us through smoothly, so I went straight to the counter to process the withdrawal of 30 Gold Coins and 200 Silver Coins.
“Long time no see. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
I was suddenly called out to, and when I turned around, Chairman Kokkola was standing there.
“It’s been a while. It seems you arrived in the Royal Capital safely. I’m late in introducing myself, but I’m Hugo. Kokkola-sama.”
“Hugo-sama, is it? I would definitely like to formally thank you, so would you please come to my home?”
“Kokkola-sama, I am just a simple adventurer, so the -sama is unnecessary.”
Harrison and the others, who had fearfully followed me to the Commerce Guild, widened their eyes when they heard the name Kokkola.
The Chairman’s guards seemed to have noticed my voice, but their faces stiffened for a moment, but they pretended not to notice.
“If it’s alright with you, would you please come to my home now?”
“I’m sorry, but I have companions with me, so I will visit you sometime.”
I was troubled by Chairman Kokkola, who repeatedly emphasized “Please be sure to come, I’ll be waiting” in front of the Commerce Guild’s counter.
I promised to visit soon and was finally released.
The fact that the chairman of a large store was bowing to an adventurer kid and inviting him with polite words was eye-catching.
The gazes around me were painful, but the curious eyes of Harrison and the others were frightening.
I canceled my visit to the Kels Smithy on Hatarinaru Street, bought food, and fled back to the campsite.
One thing that bothered me about meeting Chairman Kokkola was that she said, “I have a lot to talk about,” with a meaningful look in her eyes.
I showed my face, thinking that I needed to show my face to the chairman who knew who I was, but I don’t know if it will be good or bad.
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When I returned to the campsite, I cut open the herb pouches, handed each of them a needle and thread, and had them make long, narrow bags.
The thickness was about 5cm and the length was about 80cm, like a cloth umbrella cover.
The four of them seemed to want to ask about Chairman Kokkola, but I completely ignored their presence and proceeded as planned.
“Hugo’s teachings make sense later, but I don’t understand this one at all.”
“What’s the point of sewing these herb pouches?”
“You’ll be sweating buckets before long, and you’ll regret sewing these bags. But if you slack off, you’ll have to sew the same thing again, so sew them properly.”
From the next day, after training with the Short Spears and Short Bows, we practiced swinging a 60cm-long stick, but Lukkas had a Long Sword Skill, so he started practicing with the remaining three and me.
It was about 5cm in diameter, and the handle had a loop of string to prevent it from slipping off.
We repeated slashing from the left and right, thrusting, and horizontal sweeps 50 times each, but we didn’t clash.
After lunch, we continued practicing Enemy Search Skill, focusing on the border between the forest and the grassland, looking for Goblins.
I realized that we needed not only Enemy Search Skill because of Uruzaku and the others, but also Presence Detection Skill, so I collected it at the Adventurer’s Guild.
I applied Presence Detection Skill to everyone and memorized about five as spares, which is quite convenient.
It also overlaps with the Enemy Search Skill in some areas, so it was relatively easy for us to learn, and we can now detect the presence and signs of life within about 20m.
As a result of this, we found that even those who did not have Life Magic like Grosta and were not bestowed with magic or skills could use them to some extent if they were applied with skills.
The remaining three had Life Magic and some Magical Power, but the applied skills could be used depending on their aptitude, although the degree of acquisition differed.
Skills can be acquired through practice if you have the aptitude, but the bestowed skills seem to be easier to acquire.
There is one more thing I want to experiment with, but I can’t do it yet because of Magical Power.
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After defeating the Goblins, we extracted the Magic Stones, used Clean to clean them, shaved off the coarse hair, and stuffed it into the herb pouches.
Harrison and Lukkas’s Clean made them clean, but it didn’t remove the smell, so I forcibly cleaned them and removed the smell by putting Magical Power into Life Magic.
Everyone was wondering why we suddenly started Goblin hunting, but they are good guys who obediently follow my instructions.
I’m grinning, thinking of making them sweat a lot in return.
Well, training days have little entertainment, so the element of play is important.
We had them stuff the collected Goblin hair into the sewn cylindrical bags.
The work of stuffing the hair while poking it with a stick after tying one end was hard, but they were swinging the finished product around and happily hitting each other.
“The things you made are about 60cm long, the same as the Short Sword you wanted. You were hitting each other with it earlier, but I want you to use this as a Short Sword and fight each other. However, I want you to do it seriously, so if you get hit, it will hurt quite a bit, so be serious.”
When I said that and grinned, they looked at the bag in their hands and changed their expressions.
That’s right, they said “It hurts” even when they were hitting each other for fun.
This is a training method for Short Swords that I got a hint from the chanbara competition using sponge swords.
They say they used to hit each other with split bamboo in leather bags during old Kendo practices, so this should be better than that.
If they get injured, I can use them as guinea pigs for my Healing Magic experiments and fix them up (probably).
There are five of us, including me, so one person is always left out, but we start the sparring with an agreement that whoever gets tired will take a break and rotate out.
It hurts when you get hit, so we’re serious, and because it’s lighter than a wooden sword, we can unleash all sorts of unpredictable attacks.
I was stronger from the start since I had been doing some self-training, but all four of them are improving rapidly.
However, the cloth swords weren’t strong enough and broke down in less than a week, becoming useless.
By that time, everyone had a lot of bruises and looked relieved to see the broken bags.
Without worrying them, I decided to return to the royal capital, inwardly grinning as I thought, “I’ll order some sturdy leather bags next time.”